Constraints for the Progenitor Masses of Historic Core-Collapse Supernovae

TL;DR

This study ages stellar populations around 12 historic core-collapse supernovae to infer their progenitor masses, finding a range from 7.5 to 59 solar masses and supporting a Salpeter initial mass function without an upper mass cutoff.

Contribution

It provides new progenitor mass estimates using resolved stellar photometry and confirms consistency with previous methods, supporting the standard mass function for core-collapse supernovae.

Findings

Progenitor masses range from 7.5 to 59 solar masses.

No supernova lacked a young stellar population within 50 pc.

Progenitors of stripped-envelope SNe are likely binary systems.

Abstract

We age-date the stellar populations associated with 12 historic nearby core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and 2 supernova impostors, and from these ages, we infer their initial masses and associated uncertainties. To do this, we have obtained new HST imaging covering these CCSNe. Using these images, we measure resolved stellar photometry for the stars surrounding the locations of the SNe. We then fit the color-magnitude distributions of this photometry with stellar evolution models to determine the ages of any young existing populations present. From these age distributions, we infer the most likely progenitor mass for all of the SNe in our sample. We find ages between 4 and 50 Myr, corresponding to masses from 7.5 to 59 solar masses. There were no SNe that lacked a young population within 50~pc. Our sample contains 4 type Ib/c SNe; their masses have a wide range of values, suggesting that the progenitors of stripped-envelope SNe are binary systems. Both impostors have masses constrained to be $\lesssim$7.5 solar masses. In cases with precursor imaging measurements, we find that age-dating and precursor imaging give consistent progenitor masses. This consistency implies that, although the uncertainties for each technique are significantly different, the results of both are reliable to the measured uncertainties. We combine these new measurements with those from our previous work and find that the distribution of 25 core-collapse SNe progenitor masses is consistent with a standard Salpeter power-law mass function, no upper mass cutoff, and an assumed minimum mass for core-collapse of 7.5~M$_{\odot}$.